CBE PhD Graduate Yingjie Hang Wins ECS Sensor Division Student Research Award

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Yingjie Hang, who earned her Ph.D. from the UMass Amherst Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) Department in May of 2026 under the mentorship of CBE Distinguished Professor Nianqiang “Nick” Wu, has won the prestigious Electrochemical Society (ECS) 2026 Sensor Division Student Research Award. The ECS will formally recognize Hang’s award at the 250th ECS Meeting in Calgary, Canada, in October of 2026. There she will receive a $500 prize, complimentary meeting registration and other benefits. She will also present her award-winning research on improving paper lateral flow strips (PLFS) for point-of-care testing.

PLFSs are simple, low-cost testing devices that can detect specific substances in liquid samples without requiring complex laboratory equipment. Familiar examples include at-home COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests. Because they are inexpensive, portable, and easy to use, these strips are especially valuable for point-of-care testing, where fast results are needed outside traditional laboratories. 

“Paper lateral flow strips are attractive platforms for point-of-care testing because of their simplicity, low cost, and rapid readout,” Hang said.

However, conventional lateral flow strips can have limited sensitivity, especially when they rely on color changes that are difficult to detect at very low biomarker concentrations. These limitations become even more challenging when testing blood samples, because blood contains many components that can interfere with optical signals.

Hang’s doctoral research addressed these challenges by combining plasmonic nanoparticles with improved lateral-flow-strip designs. Plasmonic nanoparticles are tiny metal particles that can concentrate light near their surfaces. When light excites the collective motion of electrons in these particles, the particles can amplify optical signals such as scattering, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and fluorescence. These stronger signals can make it easier to detect small amounts of disease-related biomarkers. 

“Plasmon-enhanced optical processes are powerful, but they are also complex because different nanoparticle structures and optical mechanisms can produce different levels of signal enhancement,” Hang said. “Current plasmonic nanoparticles still need to be improved for detecting low-abundance antigens, especially in human blood samples.”

To address these needs, Hang developed several strategies during her doctoral research. She designed sandwich-structured nanoparticles based on plasmon principles to maximize enhancement. She explored higher-order plasmon modes in free-standing nanoparticles for improved enhancement in the near-infrared range. She used machine learning to screen plasmon-enhanced near-infrared fluorescence probes. And she engineered the structures of PLFS for specific diagnostic applications.

Hang applied these approaches to the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nasal samples and HIV biomarkers in a single drop of blood. Her HIV-diagnostic platform was designed to identify biomarkers associated with early infection, when these markers are present at very low levels in the bloodstream. As Hang added, “We are also working on developing signal readers that can help advance next-generation point-of-care biosensors.”

Hang conducted this work in the Wu Research Group, which aims to gain fundamental understanding of charge transfer and energy transfer in electrochemical and optoelectronic​ materials and devices. Wu is also the CBE’s Emeritus Armstrong/Siadat Endowed Professor in Materials Science & Engineering. 

Hang has authored 21 journal publications, including six as first author, and holds four patents. Before she received her Ph.D. from UMass Amherst, she earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Materials Science from Soochow University in Suzhou, China.

Hang is currently an incoming postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School. With a multidisciplinary background in chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, and chemical engineering, she says she is passionate about understanding the fundamental principles of material and biology and applying ‘materials-by-design’ and ‘device-by-design’ strategies to address challenges in biomedical healthcare technologies.” (June 2026)